Abstract
The retroreflectivity (Rl) of road markings is important and should be inspected and maintained throughout their service life. The specifications are provided by European nations, the United States, and many other countries. Although acceptance tests ensure the good Rl quality of newly placed road markings, the RL values of all in-service road markings are rather difficult to inspect by using currently available devices. This study, therefore, aims to determine the relationship between Rl and corresponding image brightness of yellow road markings to evaluate their visibility by analyzing recorded images captured at night. An integrated algorithm was developed to analyze recorded images continuously for identifying road marking brightness 30 m away from a vehicle. Field experiments on three types of road marking materials were performed and repeated at four separate locations. The findings provide a promising direction for using the image brightness of road markings to predict their field Rl. However, limitations of this study are discussed and suggestions for future direction are presented.
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Acknowldegement
This research project is sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, (Project No. MOST 107-2221-E-002-039-MY3). Authors are also grateful to 3M Taiwan Co. and Guo-Yao Co. for providing marking materials.
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Funding: This research project is sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, (Project No. MOST 107-2221-E-002-039-MY3).
Conflicts of interest: To the best of our knowledge, the named authors have no conflict of interest/competing interests.
Peer review under responsibility of Chinese Society of Pavement Engineering.
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Chou, CP., Leong, KW., Chen, AC. et al. Road marking retroreflectivity study via a visual algorithm. Int. J. Pavement Res. Technol. 13, 614–620 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42947-020-6001-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42947-020-6001-x